大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer on behalf of John Phillips and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My first memory, on the day war was declared, was that my canary died. I was either four or five years old. It was an extremely patriotic bird. Afterwards I was evacuated to America whilst my parents stayed in England. We stayed, myself, two cousins and a nanny, in Connecticut. Back in England, my mother drove ambulances, before going to work in a factory in Park Royal, which overhauled spitfire engines. I came back to England in 1944 before the war had ended. The ship ahead of ours was sunk by a U-boat and nearly everyone was killed. When I arrived back at Fulham station I had not seen my mother for four years and I had no idea who she was. A week later I went to prep school and eventually got to know my parents better. During the air raids we either went to the basement or hid under the dining room table. The one thing that really stuck in my mind from that time was that you couldn鈥檛 get candy!

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